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A Blessing on the Moon
Joseph Skibell’s magical tale about the Holocaust―a fable inspired by fact―received unanimous nationwide acclaim when first published in 1997.
At the center of A Blessing on the Moon is Chaim Skibelski. Death is merely the beginning of Chaim’s troubles. In the opening pages, he is shot along with the other Jews of his small Polish village. But instead of resting peacefully in the World to Come, Chaim, for reasons unclear to him, is left to wander the earth, accompanied by his rabbi, who has taken the form of a talking crow. Chaim’s afterlife journey is filled with extraordinary encounters whose consequences are far greater than he realizes.
Not since art Spiegelman’s Maus has a work so powerfully evoked one of the darkest moments of the twentieth century with such daring originality.
At the center of A Blessing on the Moon is Chaim Skibelski. Death is merely the beginning of Chaim’s troubles. In the opening pages, he is shot along with the other Jews of his small Polish village. But instead of resting peacefully in the World to Come, Chaim, for reasons unclear to him, is left to wander the earth, accompanied by his rabbi, who has taken the form of a talking crow. Chaim’s afterlife journey is filled with extraordinary encounters whose consequences are far greater than he realizes.
Not since art Spiegelman’s Maus has a work so powerfully evoked one of the darkest moments of the twentieth century with such daring originality.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 10, 1997
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997 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
July 22, 2018
I turned a corner with this. Always thought magical realism was no more my cup of tea than sappy romance but I loved this. To begin with I found the whimsicality with which the Holocaust was being treated discomforting. But that's not a bad thing. Reading about the Holocaust should be discomforting. Also, it was insanity on such a large scale that perhaps a novel has to be a bit insane itself to truly enter into the spirit.
Chaim Skibelski, a loveable old man who wouldn't be out of place in Nicole Krauss' History of Love, is shot along with his family and all the other Jews in his village. Instead of entering the World to Come he wakes up among the corpses and is forced to continue his existence on earth except as a living and mutilated corpse. Meanwhile, the moon has vanished from the sky. Rumour is, the Jews are responsible.
This is a fantastic feat of imagination and brilliantly written. There was a moment when I imagined Hitler reading it and couldn't help feeling he would have felt considerably belittled by its subtle mischief and brilliant humour. That's got to be a good thing, right?
Chaim Skibelski, a loveable old man who wouldn't be out of place in Nicole Krauss' History of Love, is shot along with his family and all the other Jews in his village. Instead of entering the World to Come he wakes up among the corpses and is forced to continue his existence on earth except as a living and mutilated corpse. Meanwhile, the moon has vanished from the sky. Rumour is, the Jews are responsible.
This is a fantastic feat of imagination and brilliantly written. There was a moment when I imagined Hitler reading it and couldn't help feeling he would have felt considerably belittled by its subtle mischief and brilliant humour. That's got to be a good thing, right?
August 17, 2016
One of the unique joys of a passionate reader is chancing upon a book that is so richly imagined it grabs you by the hand and takes you along on an incredible journey. Such is the power of the remarkable A Blessing On The Moon.
Not since D. M. Thomas’s amazing The White Hotel have I read a book that tackles one of the darkest moments of the twentieth century – indeed, of any century – so originally and audaciously. Written in a sort of realist surrealism style, the novel successfully combines fantasy and realism to create an astounding reading experience.
The protagonist is a dead Jewish man – Chaim Skibelski, which just happens to be the same name as the author’s great-grandfather, according to the dedication. We learn from the first page that Chaim has been rounded up with other Jews, taken to the forest, and shot. He is dead…but he continues to exist, paradoxically able to think, feel, and experience the life around him.
In the course of the book, he will chance upon his Rebbe, transformed into a talking crow, his two deceased wives (one died in childbirth), his many children and grandchildren, his old friends and neighbors. He will meet up with a young dying girl named Ola, who now inhabits his old house with his family and deplores that her father was complicit. He will debate man’s obligation to his fellow man with the decapitated head of a German solider. And he will cross the river to the elegant Hotel Amforta, where nefarious things are happening despite the luxuries offered to the ragtag group of Jews who arrive there.
Most of all, he will eventually become a part of a mission to restore the moon, which has fallen, to its rightful place in the sky. This is based on a tale of two pious Jews, who find a boat that takes them to the moon. They discover pots of silver there but when they load the boat, they have piled so much onto their frail craft, that their tethered boat sinks, pulling the moon out of the sky and leaving the earth in darkness. Chaim reflects on the mottled, “Forever now, the moon will appear this way, no longer the smooth and gleaming pearl I remember from my youth.”
“A German head talking, a little Polish girl’s bedtime tale, or was it one of the Rebbe’s cryptic allegories, the sort of story he relished telling after the Third Meal, the sun sinking, with its light, from the sky.” This is a story of the pilgrimage to The World To Come, and what a story it is! It’s haunting, unforgettable, and a must-read.
Not since D. M. Thomas’s amazing The White Hotel have I read a book that tackles one of the darkest moments of the twentieth century – indeed, of any century – so originally and audaciously. Written in a sort of realist surrealism style, the novel successfully combines fantasy and realism to create an astounding reading experience.
The protagonist is a dead Jewish man – Chaim Skibelski, which just happens to be the same name as the author’s great-grandfather, according to the dedication. We learn from the first page that Chaim has been rounded up with other Jews, taken to the forest, and shot. He is dead…but he continues to exist, paradoxically able to think, feel, and experience the life around him.
In the course of the book, he will chance upon his Rebbe, transformed into a talking crow, his two deceased wives (one died in childbirth), his many children and grandchildren, his old friends and neighbors. He will meet up with a young dying girl named Ola, who now inhabits his old house with his family and deplores that her father was complicit. He will debate man’s obligation to his fellow man with the decapitated head of a German solider. And he will cross the river to the elegant Hotel Amforta, where nefarious things are happening despite the luxuries offered to the ragtag group of Jews who arrive there.
Most of all, he will eventually become a part of a mission to restore the moon, which has fallen, to its rightful place in the sky. This is based on a tale of two pious Jews, who find a boat that takes them to the moon. They discover pots of silver there but when they load the boat, they have piled so much onto their frail craft, that their tethered boat sinks, pulling the moon out of the sky and leaving the earth in darkness. Chaim reflects on the mottled, “Forever now, the moon will appear this way, no longer the smooth and gleaming pearl I remember from my youth.”
“A German head talking, a little Polish girl’s bedtime tale, or was it one of the Rebbe’s cryptic allegories, the sort of story he relished telling after the Third Meal, the sun sinking, with its light, from the sky.” This is a story of the pilgrimage to The World To Come, and what a story it is! It’s haunting, unforgettable, and a must-read.
June 10, 2016
The World to COme
A skein of gossamer wound around one of the heaviest facts of history, this book from fourteen years ago still has the power to amaze. The fact is the Holocaust. The gossamer is woven of at least two separate strands: the idea that someone can climb out of a mass grave and move as a ghost through space and time, and an old Yiddish folk tale about two Hasidic men who ascend to the moon in a boat which they fill with so much silver that they drag the moon itself down to earth with its weight. It is a strikingly original work of fantasy, and I believe quite unique for a Holocaust story. I am less certain that it holds together or that the gossamer, however finely spun, is enough to contain the dead weight of that central fact.
The opening, certainly, is brilliant. Believing that the bullets have merely bruised him, the protagonist Chaim Skibelski clambers out of the death pit and runs with glee back to his former home, only to find it occupied by a Polish Catholic family making free with his former property. Nonetheless, he moves into an empty bedroom, accompanied by his short, black-coated Rebbe, who has been turned into a crow. This entire opening section, "From the Book of Mayseh" (which I think refers to a kind of fairy tale parable), is quite absorbing, largely because Skibell avoids crude moral polarization; one of its loveliest qualities is the relationship that develops between Chaim and Ola, the tubercular daughter who is the only member of the Christian family able to see him.
In the second section, "The Color of Poison Berries," Chaim is no longer alone, but journeys southward with others of the resurrected dead. This is more episodic, and almost loses the narrative thread until the throng believe they have reached "The World to Come," and the story attains a peak of radiant but temporary joy. The final section, "The Smaller to Rule by Night," moves forward many decades, and concerns Chaim's role in helping the two old Hasids restore the moon to its proper place in the heavens. It too has lovely qualities, but none so beautiful as the last pages of all, where Skibell shows that time can bend backward as well as leaping forwards.
Most Holocaust novels begin much earlier, but this starts at the moment of death. It is a highly original approach, equaled only (though in a very different register) by Martin Amis' Time's Arrow, which actually runs time backwards. I have also encountered a similar use of folk tales in Dara Horn's rather later book, The World to Come, but they were only one ingredient in a mostly realistic modern story. The danger that Skibell runs by peopling his story with flying rabbis and the walking dead is that he loses contact with the hard fact of the Holocaust itself. There was really only one sustained passage in the book where it truly touched the horror of the death camps, but that hit me when I least expected it.
It occurs to me, though, that this is not a Holocaust book so much as an allegory of survival. What does it mean to be an observant Jew of a later generation, coming to terms with loss, death, and enmity, and the inscrutable ways of a God who one is taught has a purpose for everything? If such horror cannot be explained by reason, turn to fable. And if that fable is neither linear nor entirely sufficient, then no more is life, when you think you have put something behind you only to have it hit you again harder from left field.
======
I am reposting this old Amazon review just after reading In the Land of Armadillos: Stories, by Helen Maryles Shankman. It too combines the Holocaust with Jewish myth, but uses the myth more as seasoning or perhaps counterpoint to the horror than as a replacement for it. It also answers a question that had taken up a great deal of the comment thread on my original review: why Skibell's book says so little about the period of attrition that preceded the Final Solution. I was thinking of the gradual process of Jews being barred from their jobs, removed from their home, robbed of their property, all before being loaded into an eastbound train. But Shankman's stories suggest that the process might have been different in different regions or in the smaller towns. In her book, the Jews are allowed to live fairly normally while being reassigned as slave labor to various menial jobs, and only then taken into the forest and shot. It is perfectly in accord with the picture we see here. The major difference is in what makes the Skibell so unique: that is concentrates on the months before death as opposed to the eternity after it.
A skein of gossamer wound around one of the heaviest facts of history, this book from fourteen years ago still has the power to amaze. The fact is the Holocaust. The gossamer is woven of at least two separate strands: the idea that someone can climb out of a mass grave and move as a ghost through space and time, and an old Yiddish folk tale about two Hasidic men who ascend to the moon in a boat which they fill with so much silver that they drag the moon itself down to earth with its weight. It is a strikingly original work of fantasy, and I believe quite unique for a Holocaust story. I am less certain that it holds together or that the gossamer, however finely spun, is enough to contain the dead weight of that central fact.
The opening, certainly, is brilliant. Believing that the bullets have merely bruised him, the protagonist Chaim Skibelski clambers out of the death pit and runs with glee back to his former home, only to find it occupied by a Polish Catholic family making free with his former property. Nonetheless, he moves into an empty bedroom, accompanied by his short, black-coated Rebbe, who has been turned into a crow. This entire opening section, "From the Book of Mayseh" (which I think refers to a kind of fairy tale parable), is quite absorbing, largely because Skibell avoids crude moral polarization; one of its loveliest qualities is the relationship that develops between Chaim and Ola, the tubercular daughter who is the only member of the Christian family able to see him.
In the second section, "The Color of Poison Berries," Chaim is no longer alone, but journeys southward with others of the resurrected dead. This is more episodic, and almost loses the narrative thread until the throng believe they have reached "The World to Come," and the story attains a peak of radiant but temporary joy. The final section, "The Smaller to Rule by Night," moves forward many decades, and concerns Chaim's role in helping the two old Hasids restore the moon to its proper place in the heavens. It too has lovely qualities, but none so beautiful as the last pages of all, where Skibell shows that time can bend backward as well as leaping forwards.
Most Holocaust novels begin much earlier, but this starts at the moment of death. It is a highly original approach, equaled only (though in a very different register) by Martin Amis' Time's Arrow, which actually runs time backwards. I have also encountered a similar use of folk tales in Dara Horn's rather later book, The World to Come, but they were only one ingredient in a mostly realistic modern story. The danger that Skibell runs by peopling his story with flying rabbis and the walking dead is that he loses contact with the hard fact of the Holocaust itself. There was really only one sustained passage in the book where it truly touched the horror of the death camps, but that hit me when I least expected it.
It occurs to me, though, that this is not a Holocaust book so much as an allegory of survival. What does it mean to be an observant Jew of a later generation, coming to terms with loss, death, and enmity, and the inscrutable ways of a God who one is taught has a purpose for everything? If such horror cannot be explained by reason, turn to fable. And if that fable is neither linear nor entirely sufficient, then no more is life, when you think you have put something behind you only to have it hit you again harder from left field.
======
I am reposting this old Amazon review just after reading In the Land of Armadillos: Stories, by Helen Maryles Shankman. It too combines the Holocaust with Jewish myth, but uses the myth more as seasoning or perhaps counterpoint to the horror than as a replacement for it. It also answers a question that had taken up a great deal of the comment thread on my original review: why Skibell's book says so little about the period of attrition that preceded the Final Solution. I was thinking of the gradual process of Jews being barred from their jobs, removed from their home, robbed of their property, all before being loaded into an eastbound train. But Shankman's stories suggest that the process might have been different in different regions or in the smaller towns. In her book, the Jews are allowed to live fairly normally while being reassigned as slave labor to various menial jobs, and only then taken into the forest and shot. It is perfectly in accord with the picture we see here. The major difference is in what makes the Skibell so unique: that is concentrates on the months before death as opposed to the eternity after it.
February 20, 2009
Jaw dropping--the afterlife of a Jewish village exterminated by the Nazis in occupied Poland. Chagall between hard covers.
January 10, 2018
Not good, there are so many better books about the holocaust that you should skip this one and read fear of tulips, boy in the stripped pajamas or book thief.
September 28, 2010
I finished A Blessing on the Moon. I think at the end its message was rather trite and overworked, The fantastical story got too complicated. There were too many fictional details to say something rather simple. Too constructed. Perhaps the auhor was trying to say more than I comprehended. Furthermore, as the book reached its end, the humor became less frequent. I prefered the first half because there the gruesome bits are balanced by humor and the reader is egged on by curiousity. I wish I could tell you to read just the first half, because that was very good. It is the ending I have trouble with.
Through page 92: This book is simply a "one of a kind" book. I have absolutely never read anything like this. It is gruesome. Picture dead Jews missing limbs and eyes and dripping blood. And then in the next instant, it is so unbelievably funny or beautiful that it is mind-boggling! It is bizarre. It is wonderful. This author has the gift of imagination.
Through page 47: In my view a book needs uplifting moments aven if the story is difficult. A Blessing on the Moon certainly fills that bill! It is in fact both surreal, gruesome and very, very funny. Right smack in the beginning you AND Chaim, the main character, are surprised to discover that he is dead. All the Jews in town are dead! If anything Chaim is more surprised than the reader is. Yes it is surreal, the rabbi has been turned into a crow! And the dead and the living can talk, but not to each other, well not usually. Just sometimes. And the moon has disappeared. Have the Jews stolen it? They did both disappear at the same time, a living Christian is quick to point out. And the pigs are worried. They have alot to discuss; with the Jews gone it looks pretty dark for them. Christians eat pork!!!! Overall this seems so far to make a difficult subject bizarre and funny, without belittling the horrible that has happened.
Ooop, I forgot to add a quote so you can taste the writing style. It is on the theme of where the moon has gone to. Ola lives in Chasim's house after his death. She is a Christian and dying. Maybe that is why Chaim and her can talk and hear eachother. The dialogue startw with Ola:
"'Let's go up, lets go look at the stars and see if your Hasids have returned the moon yet to the sky.'
I (Chaim) find that my voice has fled. It's not easier knowing what to do when you are dead. What can I say to her? Nothing, nothing. She is dying and so instead , I simply watch her, spinning around where the moonlight should be, her arms reaching out to catch the stars. The night sky is a thick lavender and the stars are cold and blue. Her breaths make small clouds as they leave her mouth. So this is what laughter looks like, I think to myself. She is laughing and I don't know why."
I love it. For me that is poetry! Poems I rarely understand!
Before reading: Kirkus says, "An unusual first novel, about the fate of the Polish Jews during WW II, that engagingly blends doctrinal wisdom with magical- realist surrealism." I adored the surreal prose - check out the bit available at Amazon! This could be a winner. Also check out:
A Curable Romantic. Which should I read first!!!!
Through page 92: This book is simply a "one of a kind" book. I have absolutely never read anything like this. It is gruesome. Picture dead Jews missing limbs and eyes and dripping blood. And then in the next instant, it is so unbelievably funny or beautiful that it is mind-boggling! It is bizarre. It is wonderful. This author has the gift of imagination.
Through page 47: In my view a book needs uplifting moments aven if the story is difficult. A Blessing on the Moon certainly fills that bill! It is in fact both surreal, gruesome and very, very funny. Right smack in the beginning you AND Chaim, the main character, are surprised to discover that he is dead. All the Jews in town are dead! If anything Chaim is more surprised than the reader is. Yes it is surreal, the rabbi has been turned into a crow! And the dead and the living can talk, but not to each other, well not usually. Just sometimes. And the moon has disappeared. Have the Jews stolen it? They did both disappear at the same time, a living Christian is quick to point out. And the pigs are worried. They have alot to discuss; with the Jews gone it looks pretty dark for them. Christians eat pork!!!! Overall this seems so far to make a difficult subject bizarre and funny, without belittling the horrible that has happened.
Ooop, I forgot to add a quote so you can taste the writing style. It is on the theme of where the moon has gone to. Ola lives in Chasim's house after his death. She is a Christian and dying. Maybe that is why Chaim and her can talk and hear eachother. The dialogue startw with Ola:
"'Let's go up, lets go look at the stars and see if your Hasids have returned the moon yet to the sky.'
I (Chaim) find that my voice has fled. It's not easier knowing what to do when you are dead. What can I say to her? Nothing, nothing. She is dying and so instead , I simply watch her, spinning around where the moonlight should be, her arms reaching out to catch the stars. The night sky is a thick lavender and the stars are cold and blue. Her breaths make small clouds as they leave her mouth. So this is what laughter looks like, I think to myself. She is laughing and I don't know why."
I love it. For me that is poetry! Poems I rarely understand!
Before reading: Kirkus says, "An unusual first novel, about the fate of the Polish Jews during WW II, that engagingly blends doctrinal wisdom with magical- realist surrealism." I adored the surreal prose - check out the bit available at Amazon! This could be a winner. Also check out:
A Curable Romantic. Which should I read first!!!!
April 22, 2011
What a surreal, macabre, and amazing read! This book doesn't overlook the horrors of war and genocide; rather it exposes such banal evil to the light of the moon, heart, and mind. Skibell's A Blessing on the Moon is sheer brilliance.
May 12, 2020
This reads so much like Neil Gaiman, but even better. Would make a fantastic movie. So well done.
August 14, 2009
Essentially describing the Jewish holocaust of WW2 (and afermath) - as seen from the dreamlike perspective of an elderly family man; a man we first meet running from the mass grave he has just been blasted into. This book takes fantastical routes through alternate realities to give an impression of devastation from the point of view of eternal hopefulness.
December 16, 2023
Dark, bittersweet, grim, and delightful.
3.5 stars
3.5 stars
May 29, 2021
A Blessing on the Moon is a dismal fantasy of a slaughtered Jew whose entire family was murdered. The fantasy is based on his inability to cope with what happened. One wonders how many of the Jewish people murdered during the Holocaust would be able to find peace.
June 30, 2018
Some searing lines I'll never forget. The magical realism was a little bit difficult for me to really engage with, though.
April 22, 2018
“when you killed me, you took everything. My home, my wife, my children. Must you have my forgiveness as well?”
>>
How is it possible for men to make laws against another man’s life, so that by merely living, he is guilty of a crime? And what kind of men enforce such laws, when they could be out on a clear day, boating or hiking or running to their mistresses instead?
>>
"It all happened so quickly. They rounded us up, took us out to the forests. We stood there, shivering, like trees in uneven rows, and one by one we fell. No one was brave enough to turn and look. "
>>
Let them sleep, let them sleep. It’s enough, having the house to myself for a night. Soon, morning will pry its way through their windows, forcing its light into their bleary eyes, and soon enough, the harsher light of their own bad conscience will surely stir them with its sharper prick.
>>
Oh, but the misery of watching her ascend to the Heavens in a fiery chariot, accompanied by her false gods, those idolatrous abominations, while our God, the One True God, has left me neglected here below, answering my pleas with His stony, implacable silence!
>>
Oh, the living, how they stink! They stink! They do! They rot but do not decompose.
>>
And each day, these walking, stinking, breathing monsters devour whole forests of animals, entire oceans of fish, great farms of vegetables and to what end? That they may shit and fart and piss their way through another day of violence and indifference.
>>
I sigh and look about. Did they really have to kill us all?
>>And like a snake, the anguished phrase slithers away from them and into the larger group, biting an ankle here, an ankle there, until everyone is infected by the poison of its doubt.
>>Only we Jews seem destined to haunt this long continent, wandering its lengths, until God, in His wisdom, decrees otherwise.
>>
Everyone I know, everyone I have ever known, has disappeared into the ash. I have torn my clothes and fallen to my knees, but my grief is insufficient. Were the oceans made of tears and the winds of sighing, still there would not be tears enough nor sighs to assuage my crumpled heart.
>>
No, it’s impossible to doubt God’s hand. Who but the Almighty could take a shabby house painter and, in a few short years, make him Chancellor of all Germany? >>
“Yisgadal v’yiskadash sh’mei rabbaw,” I chant. “Magnified and Holy be His Great Name!” I put my heart into it, davvening with all my soul. I’ve never prayed so fervently. “May the Maker of Peace in the high places make peace in the small places. For us, for Israel, and for all who mourn. And so we say, Amen!”
>>
And yet, despite everything, here I am, stuck in a kind of netherworld I never anticipated and so out of politeness and from a measure of curiosity—after all, if I have learned anything since my death, it is that one must never grow accustomed to the seeming laws of one’s existence, for as soon as one does, they are certain to change—
>>
the beauty! You can’t imagine! It leaves you wanting to be quiet. There are vast riverways of stars flowing through the Heavens. Even now, it’s impossible for me to speak, just thinking of it. That I should merit seeing such splendor!” >>
“Except for our hearts, Reb Chaim. How heavy they grew, knowing the trouble we were causing, pulling the moon from the sky.” He shifts the ladder on his shoulders. “That is something your mathematics and your astronomies cannot measure.” >>
>>
How is it possible for men to make laws against another man’s life, so that by merely living, he is guilty of a crime? And what kind of men enforce such laws, when they could be out on a clear day, boating or hiking or running to their mistresses instead?
>>
"It all happened so quickly. They rounded us up, took us out to the forests. We stood there, shivering, like trees in uneven rows, and one by one we fell. No one was brave enough to turn and look. "
>>
Let them sleep, let them sleep. It’s enough, having the house to myself for a night. Soon, morning will pry its way through their windows, forcing its light into their bleary eyes, and soon enough, the harsher light of their own bad conscience will surely stir them with its sharper prick.
>>
Oh, but the misery of watching her ascend to the Heavens in a fiery chariot, accompanied by her false gods, those idolatrous abominations, while our God, the One True God, has left me neglected here below, answering my pleas with His stony, implacable silence!
>>
Oh, the living, how they stink! They stink! They do! They rot but do not decompose.
>>
And each day, these walking, stinking, breathing monsters devour whole forests of animals, entire oceans of fish, great farms of vegetables and to what end? That they may shit and fart and piss their way through another day of violence and indifference.
>>
I sigh and look about. Did they really have to kill us all?
>>And like a snake, the anguished phrase slithers away from them and into the larger group, biting an ankle here, an ankle there, until everyone is infected by the poison of its doubt.
>>Only we Jews seem destined to haunt this long continent, wandering its lengths, until God, in His wisdom, decrees otherwise.
>>
Everyone I know, everyone I have ever known, has disappeared into the ash. I have torn my clothes and fallen to my knees, but my grief is insufficient. Were the oceans made of tears and the winds of sighing, still there would not be tears enough nor sighs to assuage my crumpled heart.
>>
No, it’s impossible to doubt God’s hand. Who but the Almighty could take a shabby house painter and, in a few short years, make him Chancellor of all Germany? >>
“Yisgadal v’yiskadash sh’mei rabbaw,” I chant. “Magnified and Holy be His Great Name!” I put my heart into it, davvening with all my soul. I’ve never prayed so fervently. “May the Maker of Peace in the high places make peace in the small places. For us, for Israel, and for all who mourn. And so we say, Amen!”
>>
And yet, despite everything, here I am, stuck in a kind of netherworld I never anticipated and so out of politeness and from a measure of curiosity—after all, if I have learned anything since my death, it is that one must never grow accustomed to the seeming laws of one’s existence, for as soon as one does, they are certain to change—
>>
the beauty! You can’t imagine! It leaves you wanting to be quiet. There are vast riverways of stars flowing through the Heavens. Even now, it’s impossible for me to speak, just thinking of it. That I should merit seeing such splendor!” >>
“Except for our hearts, Reb Chaim. How heavy they grew, knowing the trouble we were causing, pulling the moon from the sky.” He shifts the ladder on his shoulders. “That is something your mathematics and your astronomies cannot measure.” >>
February 5, 2020
I did not enjoy this book.
June 2, 2020
Skibell's 'A Blessing On The Moon' is a work bordering on classic in quality and demonstrating creative genius with aplomb.
It may fall short of being a 'classic', as there is perhaps a disparity between the enormity of the crime against humanity (in particular against those of Jewish origin or faith) and Skibell's tale, which follows its own digressive trajectory of fantastical story telling, rather than attempting to tackle the impossible scale of Shoah (the Holocaust).
But I think it should be regarded as a 'classic' of sorts, for this very reason. This is the only attempt I've come across (but I claim no expertise) to deal with such enormous issues arising from the cultural as well as the moral impact of genocide by employing magical realism (or the traditional folk story genre) as its 'modus operandi'.
Just as folk story telling wears its horrors lightly, Skibell's story telling entrances the reader into a twilight world of mysteries, existential comedy and nightmare.
Surely it's next to miraculous that Skibell can so deftly encompass one banal and almost incidental enactment of the planned 'Final Solution' against Jewry (I refrain from calling it Hitler's FS, as so many of Europe's nations were complicit and many remain culpable) and the incomprehensible theology of the eternal 'hereafter'? He turns it into oral fable, rabbinic anecdotes, a seder of food and jokes! Yet also, deeply, hauntingly moving.
Somewhere in the ether I've written a fuller review - but I can't find it. So, go see the other fine reviews here for more on this work (Amazon UK also seems to have a spiel cum review cum teaching / class prompts - could be useful)
All I can add now is - I've read the book with relish twice and I hope I live long enough to read it again (you should see the size of my 'to read' pile!)
It may fall short of being a 'classic', as there is perhaps a disparity between the enormity of the crime against humanity (in particular against those of Jewish origin or faith) and Skibell's tale, which follows its own digressive trajectory of fantastical story telling, rather than attempting to tackle the impossible scale of Shoah (the Holocaust).
But I think it should be regarded as a 'classic' of sorts, for this very reason. This is the only attempt I've come across (but I claim no expertise) to deal with such enormous issues arising from the cultural as well as the moral impact of genocide by employing magical realism (or the traditional folk story genre) as its 'modus operandi'.
Just as folk story telling wears its horrors lightly, Skibell's story telling entrances the reader into a twilight world of mysteries, existential comedy and nightmare.
Surely it's next to miraculous that Skibell can so deftly encompass one banal and almost incidental enactment of the planned 'Final Solution' against Jewry (I refrain from calling it Hitler's FS, as so many of Europe's nations were complicit and many remain culpable) and the incomprehensible theology of the eternal 'hereafter'? He turns it into oral fable, rabbinic anecdotes, a seder of food and jokes! Yet also, deeply, hauntingly moving.
Somewhere in the ether I've written a fuller review - but I can't find it. So, go see the other fine reviews here for more on this work (Amazon UK also seems to have a spiel cum review cum teaching / class prompts - could be useful)
All I can add now is - I've read the book with relish twice and I hope I live long enough to read it again (you should see the size of my 'to read' pile!)
October 11, 2015
I was intrigued and enthralled by this book and read it in close to one sitting. Even so, I would not begin to claim that I came close to even halfway understanding much of the symbolism and allegory it contains. The story follows a Jewish patriarch from the time of his execution by the nazis through 50 years of his afterlife as he searches for The World to Come. As the author describes in an interview at the end of the book, the characters are based on his family and the manner of telling the story derives from his immersion in and love for fairytales and folk tales from the Brothers Grimm to the Yiddish folk tales he learned through his family.
Although fantastical in its presentation, the horrors of the Holocaust are central to this story -- medical experimentation, mass execution, displacement, depersonalization and dehumanization, genocide and more. It is hard to explain how the author successfully manages to not have these atrocities completely bog the book down and at the same time not trivialize or minimize their impact, but he does. This book is nothing if not respectful to the author's heritage.
While the overall tone of the book is one of sadness and pathos, there are moments of warmth and humor as well. After developing a fondness for a dying girl in the family that is occupying his family's house after his execution, the main character muses "I do not know the exact laws regarding the living's relationship with the dead, but I am uncertain from any point of examination, that our liaison is unclean." I suspect that more one knows about Judaism as a religion and about the history of the Jewish people, the deeper one's understanding of this book will be; but even with only a superficial knowledge there is a lot to like about this book (although a lot that will pass over the reader's head).
Although fantastical in its presentation, the horrors of the Holocaust are central to this story -- medical experimentation, mass execution, displacement, depersonalization and dehumanization, genocide and more. It is hard to explain how the author successfully manages to not have these atrocities completely bog the book down and at the same time not trivialize or minimize their impact, but he does. This book is nothing if not respectful to the author's heritage.
While the overall tone of the book is one of sadness and pathos, there are moments of warmth and humor as well. After developing a fondness for a dying girl in the family that is occupying his family's house after his execution, the main character muses "I do not know the exact laws regarding the living's relationship with the dead, but I am uncertain from any point of examination, that our liaison is unclean." I suspect that more one knows about Judaism as a religion and about the history of the Jewish people, the deeper one's understanding of this book will be; but even with only a superficial knowledge there is a lot to like about this book (although a lot that will pass over the reader's head).
November 11, 2013
A funny book about the Holocaust? A ghost story about a man shot by German soldiers? A fable about the disappearance and retrieval of the moon? The revenge of the dead Jew, which entails kicked the dismembered head of the soldier who shot him through the forest? All that, in one book?
The story starts with Chaim being shot and left, with the rest of the Jews in his Polish village, in a pit. He immediately climbs out and goes back to his house, where Polish peasants have moved in lock, stock and barrel. Once he realizes he's dead, he isn't particularly upset with the new 'owners,' although he wishes they took better care of his family's things.
In the course of the story, he finds his rabbi has become a crow, his spirit can't be calmed by petty revenge, he resurrects the rest of the dead villagers and commences a walk across Poland with them. They find a lovely hotel which seems like it may be The World to Come, but isn't. He almost meets his first wife, dead for 25 years, and with the help of two old Hasidic Jews, he digs up the moon after the fall of Communism and places it back in the sky where it belongs.
One of the most creative and funny books I've read in awhile. I love Chaim, but he makes me crazy. He loves his family--with whom he is all-too-briefly reunited, in spite of their being scattered across Poland at the beginning of the war--but they also make him crazy. In fact, this is a bit of the Exodus story retold. The central question--WHY? WHY US?--is never answered, but then how can it be?
Great book. One to read again perhaps.
The story starts with Chaim being shot and left, with the rest of the Jews in his Polish village, in a pit. He immediately climbs out and goes back to his house, where Polish peasants have moved in lock, stock and barrel. Once he realizes he's dead, he isn't particularly upset with the new 'owners,' although he wishes they took better care of his family's things.
In the course of the story, he finds his rabbi has become a crow, his spirit can't be calmed by petty revenge, he resurrects the rest of the dead villagers and commences a walk across Poland with them. They find a lovely hotel which seems like it may be The World to Come, but isn't. He almost meets his first wife, dead for 25 years, and with the help of two old Hasidic Jews, he digs up the moon after the fall of Communism and places it back in the sky where it belongs.
One of the most creative and funny books I've read in awhile. I love Chaim, but he makes me crazy. He loves his family--with whom he is all-too-briefly reunited, in spite of their being scattered across Poland at the beginning of the war--but they also make him crazy. In fact, this is a bit of the Exodus story retold. The central question--WHY? WHY US?--is never answered, but then how can it be?
Great book. One to read again perhaps.
May 21, 2014
One of the best, if not _the_ best fictional treatments about events during the Holocaust I have read.
Chaim, the ghostly protagonist, is a mensch although he doesn't realize it. The dead rebbe, in the form of a crow, acts as a spirit guide. Although the subject matter is incredibly painful, Skibell never descends to the maudlin; quite the opposite. He writes of the humanity which still glimmers in the worst,the most tragic of times times.
At the end, as another reviewer here wrote: "This is a story of the pilgrimage to The World To Come, and what a story it is! It’s haunting, unforgettable, and a must-read."
Chaim, the ghostly protagonist, is a mensch although he doesn't realize it. The dead rebbe, in the form of a crow, acts as a spirit guide. Although the subject matter is incredibly painful, Skibell never descends to the maudlin; quite the opposite. He writes of the humanity which still glimmers in the worst,the most tragic of times times.
At the end, as another reviewer here wrote: "This is a story of the pilgrimage to The World To Come, and what a story it is! It’s haunting, unforgettable, and a must-read."
February 23, 2014
This was a Holocaust book with a twist. It combined events of the time with Jewish traditions and mysticism. Perhaps those not raised or fluent in the unspoken/unwritten traditions and beliefs of the Jewish faith may not fully understand many references and nuances. This book was touching on many levels.
I read this many years ago, along with Jane Yolen's Briar Rose, as alternatives for presenting the Holocaust. While Briar Rose was suitable for a middle grade audience, A Blessing on the Moon is definitely meant for adults.
I read this many years ago, along with Jane Yolen's Briar Rose, as alternatives for presenting the Holocaust. While Briar Rose was suitable for a middle grade audience, A Blessing on the Moon is definitely meant for adults.
January 22, 2008
What a bizarre book! That in and of itself wouldn't keep me from liking it, but whoa. Best explanation I can offer is that it's kind of like a horror story written about a Holocaust-era Jew who was murdered in the first few pages. The rest of the book is from his rotting corpse's point of view. Really weird. Maybe I missed the point...
July 18, 2015
I picked this up because I enjoy WWII fiction. I didn't read enough of the blurb to realize it was not a traditional historical fiction book. It's not that I didn't enjoy the writing and description that I've given the book 2 stars; it's simply because I don't care for zombie/vampire/ghost characters. Would this book be considered paranormal? Anyway, it just wasn't my personal cup of tea.
September 19, 2015
The beginning did not capture me...but it could be that I did not give it a fair chance. I intend to go back to it when I have completed a few others. It is written beautifully, so that is not the issue. Can't seem to pinpoint what it is that could not keep me motivated to keep with this one.
I would like to give it another try!
I would like to give it another try!
July 22, 2013
Had a hard time staying with this book. I could have used a reader's guide. Most of the symbolism was lost on me. Perhaps if I knew more about the Jewish tradition the book would have made more sense.
June 19, 2012
This was the strangest book I've ever read.
April 16, 2012
This book was very strange. I did not understand the story at all.
July 30, 2016
Ok I guess I'm no literary genius. But I didn't get why this book ranked so fantastically. I found it weird and somewhat draggy. Not my cuppa tea I guess
June 19, 2020
I never read magical realism much before because I always found it very awkward and contrived, but this was such a beautiful book! Critically, it's amazing and well-written all throughout, but there were some areas that lulled or bothered me.
The writing is quite simple, yet truly paints a picture. The opening is something I've rarely seen done effectively, especially in books about World War II/the Holocaust. This moves into a pretty confusing but compelling storyline with Ola, that I particularly liked I loved the allegorical style, and the incorporation of such vibrant aspects of Jewish culture and folklore. I only wish I knew more about it to truly understand the depth of the novel. The title confused me up until the very end, and it felt so beautiful to have everything click into place. This is a piece of fantasy, but even the most absurd scenes translate to real life effortlessly. Joseph Skibell is a wonderful writer in both his words and ideas.
That being said, I think the book could have been much shorter (not that it was too long to begin with). I read afterwards that it was meant to be a play or a short story, both of which I think could have made the story into something incredible. There were some areas that were twisted upon themselves and convoluted to a frustrating degree, as the book was already very ambiguous.
It's interesting because this is unlike any other historical fiction I've read (but similar to The Book Thief in some ways), yet I feel like it is in this fictional form that the real stories of the Holocaust come to life.
The writing is quite simple, yet truly paints a picture. The opening is something I've rarely seen done effectively, especially in books about World War II/the Holocaust. This moves into a pretty confusing but compelling storyline with Ola, that I particularly liked I loved the allegorical style, and the incorporation of such vibrant aspects of Jewish culture and folklore. I only wish I knew more about it to truly understand the depth of the novel. The title confused me up until the very end, and it felt so beautiful to have everything click into place. This is a piece of fantasy, but even the most absurd scenes translate to real life effortlessly. Joseph Skibell is a wonderful writer in both his words and ideas.
That being said, I think the book could have been much shorter (not that it was too long to begin with). I read afterwards that it was meant to be a play or a short story, both of which I think could have made the story into something incredible. There were some areas that were twisted upon themselves and convoluted to a frustrating degree, as the book was already very ambiguous.
It's interesting because this is unlike any other historical fiction I've read (but similar to The Book Thief in some ways), yet I feel like it is in this fictional form that the real stories of the Holocaust come to life.
November 7, 2021
Published in 1997, Joseph Skibell examines The Holocaust in a manner that perks interest by stepping into the afterlife rather than detailing the atrocities or the intricate history of the society that allowed it to happen. You do get peeks into that world, of course, but the focus is beyond the aftermath. The Holocaust should never be forgotten, yes. It’s also so covered that a straightforward telling has become numbing. I can’t feel the horror anymore.
Joseph does this by way of fantasy—ghosts of the dead given the responsibility of making corrections.
It takes place in Poland. We are introduced to Chaim Skibeski, a grandfatherly man dismayed that he is out in the middle of nowhere (above a mass grave), large parts of his skull missing, full of holes and wondering, at the outset, what has happened and what he is expected to do. He soon discovers that his rabbi is with him but transformed into a crow who flies in and out of his life.
I won’t tell the story here as its unfolding is what makes it such an interesting read.
I do have one negative to add to what otherwise is a full endorsement. I mentioned that the ghost is an aged, horribly disfigured man. How could Joseph then think it all right for him to have a sexual encounter with a thirteen year old girl. She may be consumptive, dying and hungry for affection but NOT to this degree. Only a man could imagine and write such a scene. Bad Joseph.
Don’t let that stop you from catching a tale that continuously enlightens and entertains.
Grade: B
Joseph does this by way of fantasy—ghosts of the dead given the responsibility of making corrections.
It takes place in Poland. We are introduced to Chaim Skibeski, a grandfatherly man dismayed that he is out in the middle of nowhere (above a mass grave), large parts of his skull missing, full of holes and wondering, at the outset, what has happened and what he is expected to do. He soon discovers that his rabbi is with him but transformed into a crow who flies in and out of his life.
I won’t tell the story here as its unfolding is what makes it such an interesting read.
I do have one negative to add to what otherwise is a full endorsement. I mentioned that the ghost is an aged, horribly disfigured man. How could Joseph then think it all right for him to have a sexual encounter with a thirteen year old girl. She may be consumptive, dying and hungry for affection but NOT to this degree. Only a man could imagine and write such a scene. Bad Joseph.
Don’t let that stop you from catching a tale that continuously enlightens and entertains.
Grade: B
March 14, 2021
There were several aspects of this book that set it part from other Holocaust stories, of which I have read many. First of all, Chaim never discusses the suffering that his fellow Polish citizens endured under the Nazis, as the book opens with the Jewish population being shot. Chaim is surprised that he is dead, at first. He encounters his Rabbi, who is now a crow. He loves in his own home for a while, with the Polish family who have received it after his murder.
When he eventually encounters his wife and children in the World to Come (which is where he thinks he is), he appears perturbed that none of his
Children or grandchildren have managed to survive. They apologize and tell him that they tried.
The book has several sections and I was not rewarded by all of them. I was no as engrossed by the last section, about restoring the moon. The conversation with the head of the German soldier who shot him was very enlightening. I have thought often about those soldiers and what they were commanded to do. I would hope that some of them were haunted by their victims because if they were NOT haunted then that would mean that they were ALL sociopaths.
When he eventually encounters his wife and children in the World to Come (which is where he thinks he is), he appears perturbed that none of his
Children or grandchildren have managed to survive. They apologize and tell him that they tried.
The book has several sections and I was not rewarded by all of them. I was no as engrossed by the last section, about restoring the moon. The conversation with the head of the German soldier who shot him was very enlightening. I have thought often about those soldiers and what they were commanded to do. I would hope that some of them were haunted by their victims because if they were NOT haunted then that would mean that they were ALL sociopaths.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2019
This is a haunting fable of the Holocaust, opening with the entire population of a Polish village being shot. But we find that death is not an ending for Chaim, or his rabbi, who is now in the form of a crow. As he journeys to understand what is happening, he must adapt to his new reality, which is being alive in a mutilated form. He cannot be seen by most human beings; but a young, very ill girl, who is part of a family that has moved into his home, can see him. For a time, he haunts his village, but then realizes he must move on. Along his journey he meets others in a similar condition to him and they travel to a Hotel; with its luxuries, some believe it to be a form of Heaven, but darkness lies beneath the surface. He then joins the monumental task of returning the moon to the sky. This is a dark and haunting form of magical realism. While not always an easy read, the book strikes deep within.
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